Ok so here's what happened. I was transferring a file to my external hard drive and it froze my windows explorer. Couldn't get anything to work so I shut down my laptop. When I tried to access my external hard drive again, it said I had to format it before using. Obviously I don't want to lose all my files so I don't want to format it, but I can't access them. Is there anyway to access my files?

Ok so here's what happened. I was transferring a file to my external hard drive and it froze my windows explorer. Couldn't get anything to work so I shut down my laptop. When I tried to access my external hard drive again, it said I had to format it before using. Obviously I don't want to lose all my files so I don't want to format it, but I can't access them. Is there anyway to access my files?

Thanks in advance.

Does your computer recognize the drive at all? As in, does it assign it a drive letter? If so, you can try running chkdsk.

Go to START Go to RUN type in cmd (command-prompt opens up) type in chkdsk #: /R (where you should put drive letter in place of #) Then it will start checking your drive, be patient here because it can take a long time to finish (depending on the capacity of the hard drive).

If Windows doesn't recognize it at all and doesn't assign a drive number, there might be a few other things to try. If you can give a bit more info it would help:

Drive manufacturerCapacityVersion of Windows you're running

Let me know if that helps, and if not I'll try to suggest a couple other things.

_________________"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence." - John Adams

“The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it.” - Neil deGrasse Tyson

November 30th, 2013, 6:25 am

regularjoe12

Off. Coordinator – Joe Lombardi

Joined: March 30th, 2006, 12:48 amPosts: 4180Location: Davison Mi

Re: Computer Help!!

Sorry bro, my advise starts with jiggling the cord, and ends with hittin it with a hammer...I'm no help

I USED to have that same problem, but I don't anymore. Everything I want to keep is also on another platform such as YouTube, Photobucket, a blog, or some other source. Of course, most of them are set to private.

_________________

December 2nd, 2013, 3:20 pm

Blueskies

QB Coach

Joined: September 13th, 2007, 12:43 pmPosts: 3084

Re: Computer Help!!

slybri19 wrote:

I USED to have that same problem, but I don't anymore. Everything I want to keep is also on another platform such as YouTube, Photobucket, a blog, or some other source. Of course, most of them are set to private.

This is why Chromebooks are the PC of the future.

December 2nd, 2013, 4:49 pm

TheRealWags

Modmin Dude

Joined: December 31st, 2004, 9:55 amPosts: 12488

Re: Computer Help!!

Blueskies wrote:

slybri19 wrote:

I USED to have that same problem, but I don't anymore. Everything I want to keep is also on another platform such as YouTube, Photobucket, a blog, or some other source. Of course, most of them are set to private.

This is why Chromebooks are the PC of the future.

Um, no. Maybe a fancy tablet, but not a PC.

Silly peeps, just because it has been set to 'Private' doesn't make it so.

I USED to have that same problem, but I don't anymore. Everything I want to keep is also on another platform such as YouTube, Photobucket, a blog, or some other source. Of course, most of them are set to private.

This is why Chromebooks are the PC of the future.

Um, no. Maybe a fancy tablet, but not a PC.

Silly peeps, just because it has been set to 'Private' doesn't make it so.

I agree with Wags, Private doesn't automatically mean secure. I also like the option of accessing things offline, a lot of ISPs (stupid Comcast) can go down for a large portion of a day due to things like major maintenance or weather issues.

December 3rd, 2013, 1:05 pm

Blueskies

QB Coach

Joined: September 13th, 2007, 12:43 pmPosts: 3084

Re: Computer Help!!

Seriously, how often do you lose the Internet? Once or twice a year? During those rare few hours, you can just tether your phone.

I think 85% of Windows PC users and 90% of Mac users would be better off with a Chromebook. It saves you a lot of money, there are never any upgrades to install, and it cannot get viruses.

Seriously, how often do you lose the Internet? Once or twice a year? During those rare few hours, you can just tether your phone.

I think 85% of Windows PC users and 90% of Mac users would be better off with a Chromebook. It saves you a lot of money, there are never any upgrades to install, and it cannot get viruses.

Since the year I've been back in MI, Ive had probably ten to twelve service interruptions with Comcast. I doubt the areas of the country that have common service interruptions have great 3G service either and those people that truly only need a chromebook would probably have a hard time tethering a phone to their device. I really couldn't do much of my normal routine on my computer at standard 3G speeds, so I'm obviously not in the majority of computer users. I also have lots of large files stored on multiple TB hard drives, so cloud storage really isn't right for me either. These people your talking about won't be moving towards Chromebooks in the future, they will have some form of a tablet. Chromebooks are just a bridge device that will disappear as Tablets progress into better and better devices.

December 3rd, 2013, 1:51 pm

Blueskies

QB Coach

Joined: September 13th, 2007, 12:43 pmPosts: 3084

Re: Computer Help!!

Don't misunderstand what I'm saying -- there's a large group of people that could never get by with just a Chromebook, but it is a small number, a minority.

Don't misunderstand what I'm saying -- there's a large group of people that could never get by with just a Chromebook, but it is a small number, a minority.

I agree. For those who just do web browsing and email, no need for anything more than a Chromebook. But I think even going more than a tablet in those cases is overkill. The only advantage of a Chromebook over a tablet is a keyboard, which you can get for a tablet as well. The big downside for Chromebooks is for people who use MS Office products, or have their music in iTunes. The latter is a very, very large number of people, and that's a problem. I personally know of several people who wanted a Chromebook, but the inability to use iTunes was a deal breaker.

_________________"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence." - John Adams

“The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it.” - Neil deGrasse Tyson

December 3rd, 2013, 5:22 pm

Blueskies

QB Coach

Joined: September 13th, 2007, 12:43 pmPosts: 3084

Re: Computer Help!!

Touchdown Jesus wrote:

Blueskies wrote:

Don't misunderstand what I'm saying -- there's a large group of people that could never get by with just a Chromebook, but it is a small number, a minority.

I agree. For those who just do web browsing and email, no need for anything more than a Chromebook. But I think even going more than a tablet in those cases is overkill. The only advantage of a Chromebook over a tablet is a keyboard, which you can get for a tablet as well. The big downside for Chromebooks is for people who use MS Office products, or have their music in iTunes. The latter is a very, very large number of people, and that's a problem. I personally know of several people who wanted a Chromebook, but the inability to use iTunes was a deal breaker.

Keyboard and screen size. You can be more productive on a 13- or 14-inch Chromebook than a 10-inch or 7-inch tablet.

You can also use Office, though it's a slightly gimped version (Office Web Apps) and you can transfer up to 10,000 of your mp3s to Google Music, which should make the lack of iTunes a non-factor for most people.

Don't misunderstand what I'm saying -- there's a large group of people that could never get by with just a Chromebook, but it is a small number, a minority.

I agree. For those who just do web browsing and email, no need for anything more than a Chromebook. But I think even going more than a tablet in those cases is overkill. The only advantage of a Chromebook over a tablet is a keyboard, which you can get for a tablet as well. The big downside for Chromebooks is for people who use MS Office products, or have their music in iTunes. The latter is a very, very large number of people, and that's a problem. I personally know of several people who wanted a Chromebook, but the inability to use iTunes was a deal breaker.

Keyboard and screen size. You can be more productive on a 13- or 14-inch Chromebook than a 10-inch or 7-inch tablet.

You can also use Office, though it's a slightly gimped version (Office Web Apps) and you can transfer up to 10,000 of your mp3s to Google Music, which should make the lack of iTunes a non-factor for most people.

The problem with iTunes is that most people who are doing only simple things on their computer aren't the people who are tech savvy enough to know how to convert their music collection to DRM free copies. As such, all the songs they previously bought in iTunes won't work on Google Music without first converting them so they can be uploaded to other services. It is very easy, but many, many people have no clue, and those are the folks who tend to have the simplest computing needs. That's my experience anyway.

_________________"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence." - John Adams

“The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it.” - Neil deGrasse Tyson

December 3rd, 2013, 7:05 pm

Blueskies

QB Coach

Joined: September 13th, 2007, 12:43 pmPosts: 3084

Re: Computer Help!!

I'd agree with you.

Though I think the days of "owning music" are rapidly coming to an end. It's so much easier to just subscribe to Spotify or Rhapsody or one of the other services than it is to buy individual mp3s.

Don't misunderstand what I'm saying -- there's a large group of people that could never get by with just a Chromebook, but it is a small number, a minority.

I agree. For those who just do web browsing and email, no need for anything more than a Chromebook. But I think even going more than a tablet in those cases is overkill. The only advantage of a Chromebook over a tablet is a keyboard, which you can get for a tablet as well. The big downside for Chromebooks is for people who use MS Office products, or have their music in iTunes. The latter is a very, very large number of people, and that's a problem. I personally know of several people who wanted a Chromebook, but the inability to use iTunes was a deal breaker.

Keyboard and screen size. You can be more productive on a 13- or 14-inch Chromebook than a 10-inch or 7-inch tablet.

You can also use Office, though it's a slightly gimped version (Office Web Apps) and you can transfer up to 10,000 of your mp3s to Google Music, which should make the lack of iTunes a non-factor for most people.

The problem with iTunes is that most people who are doing only simple things on their computer aren't the people who are tech savvy enough to know how to convert their music collection to DRM free copies. As such, all the songs they previously bought in iTunes won't work on Google Music without first converting them so they can be uploaded to other services. It is very easy, but many, many people have no clue, and those are the folks who tend to have the simplest computing needs. That's my experience anyway.

I agree, people that can get by with just a Chromebook most likely are not the Tech savvy users that would find music conversion easy. I'd say it's also a long shot to think people that have been using Itunes to quickly and easily buy music for long periods of time would be willing to switch to Google.

Blueskies, I don't see anyone looking for productivity using a Chromebook. It's not full featured enough to be productive and if that's your aim then an Ultrabook is the more likely route. With Windows 8 allowing for even more blurring of the lines between a full laptop and a tablet it makes the disappearance of the Chromebook even more likely with the only thing currently enticing being the price.